NEW YORK — Tennis star Roger Federer said Tuesday he was questioning the double standard applied by anti-doping authorities to world No. 1 Yannick Sinner, who avoided a suspension despite testing positive for steroids twice earlier this year.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner called the drama surrounding Italy’s Sinner a “tricky situation” and “every athlete’s nightmare”, but said he believed the Australian did not intentionally use banned substances.
At the Indian Wells tournament in March, Sinner tested positive for low levels of clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid with ophthalmic and dermatological uses. He tested positive again eight days later in an out-of-competition sample.
He was temporarily suspended because of the test result, but successfully appealed and was allowed to continue competing on the tour. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), an independent body established in 2021, ruled in its ruling that the substance had entered Sinner’s body unintentionally. A physiotherapist had applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostibol to treat a minor cut on his hand.
“It’s not something we want to see in our sport. Whether he did something or not, this kind of news… is just noise that we don’t want,” Federer said Tuesday in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show. “I understand the frustration that he’s getting treated the same as everyone else, and I think that’s the point.”
After the news broke, some players took to social media to comment, wondering if Sinner was entitled to a break given his reputation as one of the best players in the game, as other players have been suspended temporarily for similar positive tests.
“I think we all believe Jannik did nothing, but the potential inconsistency that he had to sit through while they weren’t 100% sure what was going on, I think that’s the question that needs to be answered here,” Federer continued. “But that’s the truth. We also have to trust the process of everyone involved.”
Federer, who is in New York to promote his new visual biography, “Federer,” said he will return to Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time since retiring two years ago, for Tuesday’s evening session of the US Open.
Reuters contributed to this report.
